What Is Addiction?

People who are addicted to substances display a puzzling behavior: they keep using even when it causes harm and distress to them and the people in their lives. Why would someone do this? Is it the result of a brain disease? Can we explain it in psychological terms without victim-blaming? What if everyone is irrational, whether or not they’re addicted to substances? Josh and Ray can’t quit talking to Hanna Pickard from Johns Hopkins University, author of What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine? A Philosophy of Addiction.